A newly created human resources position designed specifically to focus on minority recruitment is open only to current Norwich employees — a workforce that is 92 percent white.

On of the essential duties of the $62,748-per-year assistant human resources director is to conduct “the municipality’s recruitment and promotion programs,” according to the job announcement. The deadline to apply is 4:30 p.m. today.

Officials hope to have the post filled by April 1.

Money for the job was written into the 2012-13 budget by the City Council on the strength of a recommendation by City Manager Alan Bergren, who said it was necessary to help keep the department ahead of its “myriad responsibilities.”

But more than that, officials said at the time, the employee would oversee Norwich’s efforts to diversify a workforce that for years has lagged behind the ethnic mix within the city’s boundaries.

The person would also sit on the Diversity in Employment Committee, a panel city leaders plan to revive after years of dormancy.

Brigid Marks, the city’s human resources director, did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story. Bergren, who runs Norwich’s day-to-day operations, has been ill and unavailable for comment over the past several days.

In July 2011, The Bulletin ran a package of stories that highlighted the lack of diversity among city employees, even as new U.S. Census numbers showed that Norwich’s population was becoming more diverse — from 17 percent minorities in 2005, when The Bulletin did its first story on the subject, to 30 percent minorities in 2010.

Jacqueline Owens, president of the Norwich NAACP, said her organization was disappointed at the job description’s wording, which followed a private meeting in June 2012 between the NAACP’s leadership and city leaders, where the group suggested developing a five-year plan aimed at minority recruitment and employment, racial sensitivity training for department heads and the appointment of a diversity officer who would report directly to Bergren.

“Now, it’s going on a year later and they haven’t done anything,” Owens said. “How are they going to get minorities if they’re not there already and can’t apply for these jobs?”

Lottie Scott, a former president of the Norwich Branch NAACP, began working with the city on its poor record of hiring minorities as far back as the mid-1970s.

She said closing off the job to non-city employees was “infuriating.”

“They can talk about commitment. Doing this shows it’s just a bunch of talk and nothing else behind the talk,” Scott said.

“When the shop is closed so only people from the inside can come in, what kind of game is going on? If you’re about change, change the way you do things.”

Page 2 of 2 - The job was posted on Jan. 29. According to job postings gathered by The Bulletin, none of the nine openings advertised in the past year required applicants to have previous employment by the city to qualify.

“We didn’t talk about a restrictive clause when we talked about putting that position back into the budget cycle,” Mayor Peter Nystrom said. “Our anticipation was this position would be refunded and filled to help the city move toward a more diversified workforce.”

Marks’ office has been operating without an assistant since May 2009.

Paul Schroder, a retired city firefighter and chairman of the Personnel & Pension Board, said he doesn’t believe the narrowly written requirement mandating city employment will detract from the pool of applicants.

“I don’t think it’s an effort to discriminate,” he said. “We have a lot of qualified people in the city of Norwich. They’re just trying to see if anybody in-house could benefit from stepping up.”

While city officials say part of the problem is a lack of applications coming into City Hall from minorities, Nystrom said leaders need to acknowledge change is needed.

“If you look at the population in the city of Norwich, one would expect the diversity to be found within our city,” he said.

“That needs to be acknowledged.”

Scott said she is not advocating for a minority to be hired for the assistant human resources job, but is “bewildered” why City Hall is not casting a wider net to find the most qualified candidates.

“I think they should be pulling from a broader field,” she said. “I don’t know who the city has working for it, but with the job that must be done, they should have been willing to open it up, and the fact they haven’t concerns me.”